Molly Russell’s father has criticised social media companies for their “underwhelming” response to a coroner’s call to prevent future deaths.The 14-year-old, from Harrow, London, took her own life in 2017 after viewing suicide and self-harm content online.A coroner concluded Molly died while suffering from the “negative effects” of online content.Ian Russell said the social media firms’ responses indicated a “business as usual approach”.Senior coroner Andrew Walker had sent a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report to social media giants Meta, Pinterest, Twitter and Snapchat last year.Recommendations were issued, including a review of algorithms used by the sites to provide content.Molly’s father Mr Russell said only regulation, as proposed in the Online Safety Bill, would change the attitude of social media giants.Changes to Online Safety Bill ‘not ruled out’Ofcom: A third of children have adult social mediaIn her own words – Molly Russell’s secret Twitter accountHe said: “My reaction is summed up by underwhelming and unsurprising.”The responses vary but in general they are underwhelming and seem to me to indicate a ‘business as usual’ approach post-Molly’s inquest.”One perhaps would have hoped that looking at the level of detail that was presented to the coroner… it would have focused minds and compelled
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